pieris

Latest posts by pieris

Hi Mrs Garden, just something that maybe of some help to you, or not! I read your post from a couple of days ago about you finding it difficult to make a payment with your card on the internet, just to say that when I have had this problem it has been something to do with my laptop, on the first occasion the date and time was wrong on my laptop, and second occasion someone suggested I log on using another browser(think that's the terminology), when a code wasn't accepted. Hope you don't mind me butting in, the lavender plants are worth getting I got them last year, wouldn't like you miss out. Can you not find out from your bank if the payment has been taken out of your account?

Ta Lyn, I shouldn't think they need all those leaves, I suppose i've taken half of the leaves off, the trouble is the birds can see them better now. Just noticed silly me made a mistake at the end of my post, I should have put 'hope i'm NOT away on holiday when they are at their best'. Can't wait till they start to ripen. Hope I've not taken too many leaves off and done them harm.

I have about 100 strawberry plants now, started with about 10 few yrs ago, most are Cambridge Favourite with a few others, the leaves cover most of the flowers and fruit so nearly all the fruit is hidden from sunlight, should I cut some of the leaves off to let the sun in on the fruit? I actually started to cut some leaves off the other day, but stopped, as I don't know if it was the right thing to do, I know not to cut all the leaves off. I have been looking on the internet for info but not found any about this. I am looking forward to a lot of strawberries this year, hope i'm away on holiday when they are at their best.

Hi, last year i'd left a couple of plants near my outdoor water tap for a little while which must have attracted bees, don't know which kind of bee but looked like big bumble bees, they found their way into my kitchen through the gap near the water tap, i'd come downstairs in the morning and there would be loads of them in my kitchen and lounge. I filled the gap in around the water tap but was still getting them in my kitchen, they had found another entrance and exit near the door step through a tiny hole in the mortar, couldn't believe they could get through such a tiny hole, couldn't see the hole. I phoned the council and he said he could use a treatment on them at a cost of about £30 or he advised me to get some ant spray and spray it into the tiny hole and the bees would carry it in with them. I am a keen gardener and know we shouldn't be killing bees but what else could I do? I didn't want to share my house with a load of bees, the ant powder worked. I'm always on the look out now for more than average amount of bees flying around my pots and baskets which are near the house and i'll be ready with some filler for the mortar.

That made me smile saying to move further south, wud love warmer weather, no black centres i think, look healthy, only been growing them a couple of years, so this shud be the optimum year for them. I'll experiment with sum of the strawberries and cloches, thanks. Cambridge Favourite give off a load of runners, that I do know! I'll have to find more people who want some plants.

A couple of questions, I've just seen how far on peoples strawberries are on this forum, mine have got a lot of flowers on but no fruit yet, I do have quite a lot of strawberries mainly Cambridge Favourite, should I put a cloche over them to speed things up? I've got a couple of cloches that i've never used. The plants are different ages and are all at different stages, some arn't in flower yet. I have put some blood, fish and bone down and will give them some high potash feed occasionally. I need to get rid of some of them as they have increased far too much, I have thinned some out but not all of them as I don't have anywhere else to put them, I have put some in a small raised bed, they are taking over but didn't want to throw them away. Thanks. I live in North of England near Preston

I saw a peacock butterfly on my daffodils about a week ago, didnt think daffs attracted butterflies much, they r prob too early, i was surprised to see it, it was a warm day. Asciepias looks interesting, will look those up.